News that the United States will re-open its land border with Canada and Mexico to fully-vaccinated travellers has some wondering whether it’s time Canada ended its own advice to discourage citizens from travelling.
Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley took the country’s politicians to task for jetting around the world to global conferences while admonishing ordinary Canadians from travelling.
“Telling your citizens to stay home and not travel while the leadership of the government racks up frequent flyer points is a lesson in hypocrisy itself,” wrote Lilley, adding that it’s time the government changed its messaging.
“I’m not arguing that these government leaders should stay home; they should surely be going to these summits, but my parents should also be free to visit Florida without the inference that they are ignoring government health advice,” he said.
The U.S. border will re-open in early November, but Canadians will still need to take a COVID test before returning home which is an added expense and hassle that may discourage some people from travelling.
The CBC reported that members of the U.S. Congress will ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of Parliament to drop the requirement
“Testing is redundant,” said New York Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat, Wednesday, adding that proof of vaccination should be enough.
Another obstacle for some visiting Canadians is what will the U.S. policy be to those with mixed vaccine doses?
The U.S. will accept fully-vaccinated travellers to enter the country if they received doses of WHO-approved vaccines, but have been vague about those with mixed doses.
The CDC says mixed doses of the two mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, are acceptable in “exceptional situations,” reported iPolitics, but it doesn’t accept a combination of AstraZeneca’s shot and an mRNA vaccine.
Of the 3.9 million Canadians with mixed vaccine doses, about 1.6 million got the AstraZeneca formula followed by an mRNA vaccine, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
